I had a friend who was single at the time and spent alot of time around our house when my 2 daughters were in their early teens. He made more than one comment to me that I was too hard on my kids. However, he was the first one to act like a big brother to them and compliment to others about how well behaved my daughters were. A little irony here? He now has 5 daughters but lives out of state & they are still pretty young but I'm curious to see how his parenting goes.

My older daughter asked me more than once how come her younger sister got away with things that she didn't. My best answer is that parenting is OJT (on the job training). No one goes to school for it and no one can gain work experience until a situation happens. People don't know what parenting is like till they have to rush a sick kid to the doctor at 3:00am or have a choking child and panic sets in. My oldest choked on a hard candy and started choking. I grabbed her and headed out the door only to catch myself that she would be dead before I got to the doctor. I held her upside down while my wife stuck her finger up her throat. She coughed it out. Right thing to do? You tell me when you have never experienced it before. So back to my daughter's question, you learn as you go, and on top of that, each child is different and reacts differently to the same upbringing.

Bottom line is that no one is perfect, nor has all the perfect answers. I didn't pay for all of my kid's college & felt that as long as they were working their way through college, I wouldn't charge them rent. It worked for us and for them.

Anyone who thinks they have all the answers, especially if they have never hit that point in life, does not have the answers...... only opinions.

For my first time experience with my kid choking was like yours. Know with a second kid you hit them on the back they spit it out and you just keep on going like nothing happens. It is amazing how your outlook changes as you are parenting for longer periods of time.